


The Wheel Turns

by drelfina, Lilili_cat



Series: The Konoha Performance Incentive [9]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Angst, Angst and Dark, Dark, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Founders Era, KPI trash party, KPI universe means rape, KPI warnings apply, M/M, Multi, Other, So many implied pairings, Suicide, everything sucks, so many other characters - Freeform, so much rape, twisted moral and ethics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-06 07:41:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19058233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drelfina/pseuds/drelfina, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilili_cat/pseuds/Lilili_cat
Summary: In the beginning, Hashirama had a dream.In the beginning, Hashirama had his baby brother by his side, on his knees.In the beginning, Hashirama made Konoha.In a dark, terrible world, Hashirama wrenched peace out of the shinobi clans and grew a Village.His peace is just as terrible and dark.All the relevant Konoha Performance Incentives warnings apply.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sweetsinnerchild](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetsinnerchild/gifts), [Lilili_cat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilili_cat/gifts).



> So this started because I am horrible and Lilili_cat got inspired to figure out how KPI might be started from the Founders Era, and then we had a retro LJ-style drabble party in the comments. You can find most of the worldbuilding, comments here at this thread: 
> 
> [click here for the drabble thread](https://archiveofourown.org/comments/229823995)  
> Most of the drabbles can be found here at this thread. 
> 
> Thanks to nirejseki's [Tear Into Your Soul](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18222737) which inspired Dark!Hashirama (of course), Lilili_Cat, Sweetsinnerchild and I had a drabble party. 
> 
> Can we call it KPI-trash party? 
> 
> It seems like it is a trash party. 
> 
> All standard (lol) KPI warnings from this universe/series applies.

Lilili_cat: 

The wheel turns and turns and what was once on top will be ground to the bottom.

Okay...so...

1) Dark!Hashi has always used Tobirama in that way such that Tobirama doesn't even realize it's wrong

2) Dark!Hashi's control is such that Tobira doesn't kill Izuna but wounds him enough and in such a way as to prove it's possible he could've killed him but chose not to

3) Village gets formed

4) Dark!Hashi is elected hokage, and Madara increasingly gets uncomfortable with Dark!Hashi

5) During all of this, Dark!Hashi has Tobirama orchestrate power structures in the village to benefit him and put Izuna's life in his hands but without Izuna or Madara realizing

6) Madara tries to turn Dark!Hashi down, but then Dark!Hashi reveals his threat to Izuna (who is still unaware)

7) Madara gives him to protect baby bro

8) Over next few weeks, he's horrified to discover Tobirama being an obedient little pet to his brother

9) Madara begins to get irrationally angry at Tobirama for not escaping/doing anything.  
Consciously he knows that Tobirama is mindfucked beyond all repair but he's still angry because Dark!Hashi has a much longer rope with Tobira since Tobira is completely under his control

10) Madara decides he hates Dark!Hashi and broken!Tobira and vows to inflict on Dark!Hashi exactly what he inflicted on other people

11) Dark!Hashi turns into a tree (no descendants, 'cause I can't see Mito putting up with him here)

12) Madara seizes power (he is 2nd strongest) and becomes nidaime, and all the levers of power that Dark!Hashi had broken!Tobira build for him fall into Madara's hands

13) Madara institues KPI and encourages attention on specifically the Senju chuunin

14) Senju chuunin scatters and flees

15) Madara ends up teaching canon! Tobirama's original team

16) Madara abuses broken!Tobirama in front of them

17) Izuna witnesses this entire debacle and NOPES the heck out of there with whatever folks will follow him (a motley crew)

18) Madara, enraged by Izuna’s betrayal, takes it out on broken!Tobira. Broken!Tobira is finally driven over the edge and kills himself

19) Madara goes to look for his little brother and gets taken down by Silver brothers

20) Hiruzen ascends as sandaime

* * *

Lilili_Cat: 

Madara-sama is done with him tonight, and Tobirama gingerly climbs out of his master's bed.

He's thinking again, and that's bad, Hashirama had always said it's bad and that he shouldn't do so much of it, he should leave it to his Anija, but...

Anija isn't here. Anija's gone.

And it's only right that Madara-sama, as Anija's successor, should take all that Anija had.

Wasn't that what Anija always said? The strong deserved to have the weak because that's why they were strong, and Anija could have the whole world because no one was stronger than Anija.

And now no one is stronger than Madara-sama.

Including him.

It is right that he be given to Madara-sama, and that Madara-sama use him like Anija did.

But...

Anija didn't call him a whore. Anija didn't blame him for all of his pain and tell him it's all his fault.  
Anija didn't hold him down until his arm snapped and beat him until he lost consciousness. Anija didn't fuck him while he was unconscious, and he didn't wake up in agonizing pain all over his body with Anija.

But Anija isn't here anymore, is he? Anija is a tree now. And Madara-sama...

Madara-sama is his new master.

He should listen to Madara-sama.

He should serve Madara-sama.

Isn't that what Anija would have wanted?

Isn't it?

* * *

Drelfina: 

It wouldn't be so bad, Madara thought, if Tobirama wasn't quite so obviously intelligent. he had a brain. he had a mind. why didn't he use it?

Oh Tobirama did - when Madara let him go to the labs, leave him in the library, Tobirama entertained himself well enough, creating jutsu and doing research, and always, always coming to him with his results, kneeling at his side like a wide-eyed puppy eager for praise.

But Tobirama was no harmless puppy, needing to be petted and cosseted. he was the Demon of the Senju, wasn't he? a master in Suiton - surely he'd fight back if he wanted.

but he didn't. Tobirama never did. He knelt and took it, took whatever Madara gave him, turned his head submissively to blows and begged for more, begged for forgiveness, promised he'd do better next time.

surely there was a breaking point somewhere, where Madara could press and twist and make him _think_.

* * *

Lilili_cat: 

He hates him.

Senju Tobirama, Demon of the Senju, and yet this...this...

...this puling, piteous creature, just taking it all, no matter what Madara does and Madara...

Madara hates him.

He hates how empty those red eyes are these days. Hates how just when Madara thinks he'll break, just when Madara thinks he'll realize how _messed up_ this whole thing is, that Madara will see a damn spark of intelligence in the brain that he knows is there, the man would revert.

Blank-eyed, perfectly obedient and biddable.

Pitiful.

Madara hates him.

He's the one that let this happen.

He's the one that had the freedom to break free when that bastard Hashirama had them both. But he chose not to. Just like he's choosing not to now.

And Madara will make him. He'll whip and beat and kick and fuck him raw until those eyes stop being blank, until the Senju Tobirama he thought he knew on the battlefield returns.

(But he never knew that Senju Tobirama after all, did he? That Senju Tobirama never existed.)

It's because of him that Madara suffered. It's because of him that Madara suffers still.

* * *

Drelfina

Anija had always been... not gentle, but there was always an underlying thread of affection. of care. of concern.

He was a weapon in his Anija's hands, a tool to wield, a sword to hone and point and stab and twist.

In all things, he had been Anija's, his brother, his tool, his possession.

If he made a mistake, Anija would correct him. If he exceeded expectations, Anija would be pleased. Tobirama had grown up learning how to read Anija's pleasure, and while a tool, a toy, a brother, shouldn't need to be praised to do RIGHT, he craved every small sign nonetheless.

Madara was never pleased.

Tobirama never pleased him, he wasn't enough, he didn't do enough. He wasn't submissive enough, he made too many mistakes, and there wasn't anything he knew to fix it, to be right, to subject himself to more abject crawling. Madara didn't like him to beg, so he didn't. But Madara didn't like him talking like he'd do in the office, in the battlefield, so he didn't talk at all.

Madara didn't like him fighting back, so he knelt and pleased him as best as he could.

And ... that didn't work either.

Anija had always kept this use of Tobirama behind closed doors - not that the others didn't know, everyone knew who Tobirama had belonged to - the marks he'd worn on his throat, the ruff a mark of a collar and possession. But Anija had ... it had been dignified. private. just them, just for them, Tobirama on his back and spread open for his anija to take and use - where Anija's use of him was wholly, and utterly, his.

But Madara -

it hurt, this time, to be shoved to his knees, to have his mouth used in front of others, those who weren't his own clan, weren't his family, abased and disgraced.

What had he done wrong, that he be used in front of children like his submission was a punishment?

* * *

Izuna says it's wrong.

Izuna says that he isn't the same anymore, that he isn't the same Aniki as he once was.

 _I did it for you!_ He wants to scream. _I did it because Hashirama would have hurt you! Because Tobirama built these twisted power structures for his brother, and they would have trapped you!_

But Izuna doesn't listen.

Izuna sees Tobirama on his knees, bruises purpling around his neck and arms, choking on Madara’s cock, and Izuna...

Izuna leaves.

And that night, Madara holds up a kunai to Tobirama's throat and...

He'll cut him. He'll cut him for what he made Izuna do, for making Izuna look at him with those judging eyes.

His little brother, the light of his life...

He left.

He left Madara here, all alone, with this...this...

He left Madara with this hollow, empty doll, in this hollow, empty village.

And it hurts, it hurts.

Ithurtsithurtsithurtsithurts.

Is this Hashirama's revenge for his clan?

Is this Hashirama's revenge for his brother?

But no...Hashirama had never cared for his little brother. Because why reduce him to this...this thing? This blank-eyed, hollow doll who seems to only live to please Madara?

"You did this," he whispers to Hashirama's tree. "You, not I. I didn't rob him of his mind. I didn't take every part of him and twisted it to serve my own purposes. He broke long before I had a hand in him."

But no one replies.

He drops the kunai, leaves his pet and runs to his rooms.

He can't bear to look at him any longer. Hashirama, Tobirama, Izuna...

He can't.

And...in the morning...

He finds that his pet has slit his own throat.

* * *

Drelfina: 

The Village -

It's a hollow thing, victory and control, watching the Senju grind out, be torn to shreds - only the strongest survive.

There's Senju Tsunade, one of the strongest of her clan, where at least she has a mind, she has her own strength, even as she is taught under Sarutobi Hiruzen.

She watched as the world fell into place, a structure that was better than the vicious thoughtless mauling, the machinery that had eaten her clan and left scattered only her sisters, to be sheltered into other clans via marriage.

She was strong, but she was no Clan leader. She'd seen what happened when you had strength, but inability to be flexible. Inability to bend.

There was a war coming, and Senju Tsunade turned her strength to medical, to healing, and there, it was a shelter too.

Who would touch a medic with their lives in your hands?

Senju Tsunade was strong, and she formed her own clan and protection in the numbers of medical ninja.

A protected, untouchable goddess.

* * *

Lilili-cat

Izuna watches the village from afar.

He worries for the clan members left behind, but they decided their own fate. He worries for young Kagami, but he was loyal. He worries for Hikaku, but he was vicious.

And sometimes, he spares a thought for those not of his clan.

He spares a thought to that wretched Tobirama left behind, to the Senju chuunin driven to the slaughter, to the clanless who will now suffer under the yoke of a fault not their own, under the madness that they did nothing to instigate.

And he spares a thought for Madara, for the Aniki he once was.

And then he turns his back and looks to his own fledgling little clan, built out of the scraps of those who'd left with him, Uchiha and Senju and clanless alike.

The wheel ever grinds, and he wants his clan out of the way when the Uchiha are ground into the dust.

* * *

Drelfina:

Kagami was not a proper Uchiha. He was a bastard of Tajima's cousin's daughter, bloodlines so muddled on the fields of war, marked in the curl of his hair and the lack of a father. But he had the Uchiha eyes, and the sharingan activating, and the natural proper affinity of fire.

In this new village, Madara was kind to his bastard cousin clansman, the one with no father, the one whose mother died on the battlefield when he was ten.

Kagami was one of the first to be chosen by Madara for personal training, to integrate with a team of not-Uchiha, to be one of the examples of Village unity and cohesiveness, and Kagami loved.

Even if he was a bastard, a half-breed, Kagami was still acknowledged Uchiha, in the crest he wears on his back, the eyes he has in his head.

When he makes the newly created chuunin rank, he barely stays in there for a week - and no one dares touch him because he bears the mark of Uchiha.

He makes jounin, the first that Nidaime decides of that rank.

He marries who Madara-sama tells him to, and other than the parents, Madara-sama is the first to hold the new child, one of the first of the village of peace and unity.

It works, this system, better than outright war - this freedom to walk down the streets and not get torn to shreds. even the chuunin who are picked for pets are never hurt more than training injuries, and no one has to worry about their children growing up powerless, parentless.

His little daughter will grow up loved, safe, and his descendants as acknowledged, beloved Uchiha and Konoha shinobi.

All thanks to Madara-sama.

* * *

Lililicat

The Shimura had always respected the Senju, though not allied with them.

And yet Madara-sensei...

The Shimura had always whispered of the power of the Senju brothers, of the danger of vines that could choke a shinobi all unawares and of giant tsunami sprung from thin air.

And yet Madara-sensei...

The Shimura had always bowed to and been wary of power.

And yet Madara-sensei has Tobirama-san on his knees, cock in the Senju's pretty mouth, a hand harshly gripping those silky white strands and Sharingan-eyes flaring with hate, red and wild and powerful.

Is this what power brings? Is this what being the top meant?

(Is this what losing power means? Is this what being lesser meant?)

Danzou resolves never to be without power.

He will follow his Madara-sensei's example.

* * *

Drelfina: 

To ever possess those sharingans...

Not just the sharingan. But to have them on their knees, perfect in obedience and submissiveness, staying where you put them...

To become jounin meant to have one of them - any of the chuunin - at their feet.

Shodaime had dictated and Madara-sensei had enforced, that there would be no child soldiers. No child should pay the price for protection of their village, of peace.

But what determined children?

Genin were children, too weak and young to withstand and pay the price. So therefore, only chuunin would bear the price - numerous and strong enough for the elite to spend their power on.

Over the years - well.

Danzou always remembered the sweetness of the way a man could look so incredibly pretty on his knees, eyes red like blood.

* * *

Lilili-cat

There's a fairytale that mothers tell their children in Konoha.

Once upon a time, there was a hime-sama, and she was very, very beautiful and very, very lonely. Her brother was called away to war, and she was still too young so join, so she wiled away her days at her clan compound, unable to leave.

But she loved her brother very much, you see, and she would do anything for him, so she studied and studied and soon learned everything there was to know.

She would become strong enough to serve her brother as she must, for she loved her brother very much, and she would bring her knowledge to end the war.

And she did just that, inventing jutsu after jutsu for her brother.

For this, her brother invited her to his side on the front lines, and together they stood against their foe.

Using the jutsu the hime-sama had created, her brother showed their enemies how strong they were, and soon, those enemies joined them in peace.

They all came together and founded a great village, and her brother was so happy that he asked the hime-sama what she wanted.

The hime-sama said she would like nothing better than to be by his side, and so they all lived together in a great tower. The beautiful hime-sama served her brother loyally, and then her brother's successor loyally for the rest of her days.

* * *

Drelfina

Hashirama was a terrible god.

He was her younger cousin, and Touka would follow him to the end of the earth, the trailing blaze of his path littered with the bodies of their enemies.

Anyone would. Everyone would.

In his eyes and his power, even Butsuma saw the salvation of the Senju, the final dominance over the Uchiha, the path to finally wipe their Uchiha pestilence from the earth.

So much so that he - and thus the clan - turned a blind eye to what Hashirama did to his younger brother behind closed doors. Tobirama was never not mission-ready, Tobirama was a weapon in his brother's service, a loyal tool of Senju, unlike the quarrelling voices of the elders and cousins.

Touka could understand it - the way Tobirama was so sharp he cut, and she had helped bring him up, held him in her lap when he cried, smoothed his tears away when it got hard, when her even younger cousins had been lost to the Uchiha.

She might be third in line, but she was nothing to the both of them, Gods meant to walk the path to victory forever.

Senju Touka lived long enough to see the formation of the Village, the power of the Senju changing the landscape of the shinobi world forever, and she was content.

* * *

Lilili-cat 

It is the tree is where Jounin traditionally challenge each other for rights to the chuunin, and it is the tree that traditionally drinks the blood of the fallen Jounin, whosoever he may be.

Senju, Uchiha, clanless, it does not matter. The tree will drink all, and as long as the tree drinks of the fallen, Konoha will prosper, Konoha will survive.

So it is said, and so it has always been since the time of the Nidaime. For it is said that Nidaime Uchiha Madara was the first to water the tree.

A bloody kunai in one hand attached to twine made of soft white hair and a pitcher of blood in the other, Nidaime had tipped the pitcher over the trees roots. He had sprinkled the blood with one hand and tied the twine to a branch with the other. And then he had wished for Shodaime's happiness and blessing.

And now, whenever a Jounin should fall to a challenge, his blood is strewn across the tree's roots and the kunai used to slay him is bound with white silken string and tied to a branch.

So it was done in Konoha.

And so it continues in Konoha.

* * *

Drelfina: 

There's a tree in the Forest of Death, that stands alone in a small clearing.

Genma doesn't know much about botany, but if the tree's roots spread wide and deep, it'd explain the somewhat round clearing around it - as did the dense foliage above, other trees barely daring to touch it.

The ground was dry, almost packed earth around the base of the tree, and Genma made his way to it.

"Well," He said, "Is this the part where I try to fight you and then you kill me and then i get to spill my blood all over the roots?"

"Don't be stupid, Gen," Raidou said with a sigh.

"I know what it means to be chuunin," Genma said, a little flatly. Looking up at the tree branches, the dangling wisps of white, like spidersilk.

Someone came out here every so often to retrieve the kunai, but left the string. Tsume-sensei had shown it to them, once.

"I won't hurt you, you know that," Raidou said after a long moment.

"I know," Genma said.

"I don't like - i don't want to, but your sensei -"

"Can't exactly take her own students in like that, yeah," Genma said. Hands clenching in his pockets for a moment, and then turned around to face Raidou, one of his best friends, one of Konoha's jounin.

"Well then," Genma said, tipping his chin up. "Come here and claim me."

* * *

Lilili-cat

Iruka stares up at the tree.

It is the tree of legend, the so-called Nidaime's tree.

Sandaime had asked him to research the stories behind the tree, learn the truth of those legends.

Oh, he knows the story well enough, everyone does. The tree drinks of the blood of Konoha's foes and keeps them all safe.

But what is the truth behind the tales? Where did it all come from?

He's researched and researched, and still he can find nothing but tales...and whispers of darkness.

They whisper of an unmarked grave of one of Konoha's powers that no one knows the location of. They whisper of madness and loss and suicide.

But...that can't be right.

Konoha couldn't have something like that in its history, can it?

Konoha was founded to stop the shedding of blood, to stop the sacrifice of innocents.

And Iruka...Iruka just must not be looking in the right place.

Sacrifices and madness and suicide.

Iruka cannot believe such a thing.

And as for that unmarked grave, he has seen no evidence of it, and no suggestion to whom it might belong.

All the greats of Konoha are accounted for. Both Shodaime and Nidaime have their tombstones in the little cemetery close to the tree, and Nidaime's traitorous brother had fled.

There was no one else.

* * *

Drelfina

Once, the Nidaime had been the greatest of them all. Uchiha Madara, Nidaime, trusted and beloved of Shodaime.

That the Senju had all but disappeared was a vagary of of time, lost to the generations.

How had they fallen so low? How had they gone from the great Nidaime's clan to this, when at one point most of Konoha's jounin had numbered within the Uchiha, and now ...

Shisui swallowed. He was the only jounin now, besides Fugaku-sama, and Fugaku-sama had so many more matters on his mind.

Shisui leaned against the tree, curling his hand in a fist against the odd-willow-smooth bark.

"I can't," he said against the tree. He didn't know if Shodaime's spirit still lingered, or whether Nidaime still listened. "I can't, I can't."

He should stay longer in the village, but the first long term mission he'd had, three weeks out of the Village to head up to Lightning Country, it had been the deepest breath of fresh air he'd had.

His clan needed him. His baby cousins needed him, and Itachi had just made chuunin, and he should stay to make sure he was safe.

But he couldn't stay.

Danzou's eyes were on him and he couldn't stay anymore.

* * *

Lilili-cat

There is a legend among the rogue Koshikake Clan of Fire Country.

Do not go near the cursed village, the legend would say, for there is a terrible guardian tree there that steals the young, the brimming with powerful and drinks their blood.

And once your blood is drunk by this terrible tree, it will turn you into a tengu yokai, and you will be forced to feast on the flesh and bones of your own kin.

Do not go, children, for if you do, evil will enter you, and you will not be as you were before.  
Innocents will come to fear you, for all the mercy will have left your body and you will be consumed with hatred for everything around you.

Do not go, you especially, the child of the spinning red eyes, for this evil tree will seek you out to twist and turn until you are a hollow thing, creating more darkness at its beckoning.

Do not go, you especially, the child of deep water, for this evil tree will drink you dry and bury itself within until you want nothing but to serve it mindlessly.

Do not go, you especially, the child of the lush green, for this evil tree will bind you to it until you are as one. For the tree sprung from a child of the lush green, and so it seeks a child of the lush green to join it.

Heed my words, for they are the words of our first and our wisest.

Heed my words, for they come from first of the Koshikake clan, Elder Izuna, himself.

* * *

Drelfina

Hikaku earned his place through blood and tears. Mostly other people's blood and tears.

It was just and right that he had earned this too, and that the Senju lay broken and gasping under him.

Where the Senju women were easier to subdue with a child in their belly, Senju men refused to submit until they were cut down, hurt -

It seemed like that they would only stop fighting when they were reminded of what happened to their brightest and best - one of the first fucktoys of their Nidaime, how Nidaime had tamed the Demon Senju into coiled, pretty docility.

Marking them with white cord around their wrists like collars that the dogs and pets Senju were, seemed to break their spirit just as well - white cord as white as the Demon's hair.

* * *

Sweetsinnerchild

The tree whispers.

 _Another,_ it whispers, _another, another_ \- and there's blood still gleaming wet at its roots, seeping slow into the ground. Another challenger, another death.

He's no stranger to death, not when he has killed so many in the name of the village and some in the protection of his own life and title. But that is only ever a job, and the tree...

The tree, it craves.

 _Another_ , it rustles. _Strength. Unity. Reward._ The empty space just next to it, it calls.

_Together._

The Nidaime's tree, blood-drunk and ever hungry. Ever triumphant, twisting and growing and leeching all the life from the ground.

If Tenzou grows something here, it would be consumed.

(If Tenzou plants his roots here, he would be consumed.)

Another, and Tenzou can only step back, back and away.

* * *

Lilili-cat  
Hiruzen looks to Iruka, and he smiles.

He's old now, there's no need for such a pet as Danzou seeks. He's old, and a game of Go or Shogi would suffice just as well as a tumble in the sheets.

And Iruka is so kind, so sweet. He is innocent the way Hiruzen has not seen for a long, long time.

And Hiruzen...

Hiruzen doesn't want to destroy that.

Hiruzen does not begrudge Danzou his choices (for how can he, when Madara-sensei did the same things?), but his old teammate seems to forget how that ended.

Hiruzen doesn't forget.

Hiruzen will never forget.

For when Shodaime-sama was the strongest, his sweet pet thrived and Konoha saw a bounty of new jutsus.

But when Madara-sensei was the strongest, he destroyed that same pet and the new jutsus stopped.

It is better to have a deft, light hand on the leash like Shodaime-sama than a heavy, harsh hand like Madara-sensei.

Hiruzen respects his old sensei, really he does, but...

He is old, not blind.

He does not want to live in regret.

* * *

Drelfina

Hijiri Shimon knows exactly what he looks like.

Almost a full decade younger than he actually is, he also had the conceit of pretty, soft, straight hair that he allowed to grow long as bangs and hang over his hitai-ate.

He knows it's a temptation to jounin; he's seen hands clench a little when he comes to the front desk of the Intel reception to receive or give out reports.

He knows that all of them wish they could touch.

But Shimon had been briefed well by his Academy sensei - he never made it into a genin team that way, not the kind of potential to be assigned to a team, not potential jounin, clanless and nowhere near strong enough.

But he'd also seen what chuunin did - and noted very clearly what chuunin did - the Academy, Medical, or Intel.

He didn't have the chakra control for medical jutsu, and he didn't have the connections to buy himself a position within the Academy.

But he had a decent mind, and eyes to see, and the sweet disposition to make friends, and had, one year into genin, sweet talked himself into an apprenticeship into Intel.

He was promoted to chuunin three years later at a nice decent age of 16, and been safe in Intel ever since.

* * *

Lilili_cat

Mother feels something off the moment he walks through the gates.

Mother warns him to be careful for the village is hungry and drinks blood.

Gaara asks mother why he should be afraid. Don't they drink blood as well, seeped into wet bloody sand?

But Mother says this village would drink even them.

And Gaara...

Gaara is tired.

But he will obey. Mother is always right.

Mother is always right.

* * *

Drelfina

Minato was discreet about it - he was like the rising star of Konoha. But he knew what happened to shooting stars - bright and brilliant burning.

Jiraiya-sensei had been careless, flippant, but Minato was observant enough to know when to submit, to laugh and take. He'd learnt it from his friend, Sakumo, a half decade older than him - dogs knew when to submit to an alpha after all.

Minato was good at being friends with all the right people, to make connections so that his comrades would stand at his back and not put a kunai in his spine - he was good at learning the strings to pull, and he was good at learning when to be kind so that people didn't mind him having those strings.

It was why Kushina didn't turn away from him when he smiled, and she smiled back, blood in her teeth and blood on his hands.

Together, they would lead Konoha in war.

* * *

Sweetsinnerchild

The Uzumaki clan was small, numbers whittled down to the single digits in the wake of Uzushio's invasion. It was only a previous alliance with the Senjus and the Hokage's discretion that allowed Kushina and her fellow clansmen into the village of Konoha, with the promise to share their fuinjutsu knowledge. Kushina had been young then, still pre-genin in this strange new village and desperately missing the whirlpools surrounding her home when Tsukune bursted into their granted temporary lodgings, dragging a pale-faced Chikuwa into the room.

"They tried to accost him," she said, red-faced and furious, her hair falling out from its bun. "They called him chuunin and they tried to - fuck!"

It took time, an audience demanded with the Hokage and the Hokage's explicit confirmation that this was how it was in Konoha, and no, it would not change. Tsukune had been forced to hold her tongue after a sharp look from Ganmo, their de facto clan head.

"Grow up quickly, Kushina-chan," Tsukune told her seriously. Out of all of them, they were both the only ones that could ever make jounin. "Trust no one. It's your duty now."

And maybe it was foolish for Kushina to take a kunai to Namikaze Minato's throat, a few days after he made jounin and weeks after Tsukune-nee's death - but maybe it was also foolish of Namikaze to not return the favour, the obvious threat. She hovered around him, observing him, looking, wondering - before finally asking why.

"You look like you'd make a good comrade," he said, and Kushina remembered that she once thought him a wimp. Weak, always gravitating around others. Submissive, at one point. "Besides, I have a fondness for redheads."

Flatterer, she had thought - and she was, flattered, but not enough to allay her suspicion. Namikaze smiled disarmingly, before leaning in.

"If I help you make jounin," he said. "You can protect your clan, right?" Her breath caught in her throat, and Namikaze nodded, as if in confirmation.

"What do you want?" She asked, and Namikaze leant away, his smile still on his face. Still genial.

Dangerous.

"To protect what's mine," he said, but it didn't matter - Kushina would take the offer. Rather Namikaze a friend than a foe, and Kushina had the feeling that he didn't give chances twice.

* * *

Lilili_cat

In another world, he probably would sneak glances at women's underwear to distract himself. In another world, he would spy into bath houses and think nothing of the invasion.

Anything...anything to distract from the life of a shinobi no mono.

But here, in this life, Jiraiya is all too aware of the indignity of prying eyes, of the malicious intent behind those long unerring gazes of the powerful.

Here, Jiraiya understands the aches of being taken against his will, and of hands that he does not permit on him.

Here, he understands bile rising up in the throat in the dead of the night and being helpless to watch as his pretty dark haired teammate is forced onto his knees.

Here, he understands a different kind of pain, and all the ways a body may suffer.

Here, Jiraiya is, against all odds...a decent person.

* * *

Drelfina 

He hid in the labs a lot, after the indignities that were thrust upon him.

It hurt that sensei wouldn't do anything about it - that even if he was his sensei's favourite, this favour didn't extend to changing the world to help them.

Being the students of the Sandaime didn't mean anything once you made chuunin - it meant that the hands that fisted in your hair were a little gentler, didn't pull as hard, but it was violation all the same.

There were jutsu to investigate, though, and he could keep looking, keep testing - maybe there was something there he could use to change the world.

* * *

Lilili-cat

She is the student of the traitor, and all the shinobi glare at her back hatefully.

She is the student of the traitor, and there are whispers of her inevitable treachery as well.

She is the student of the traitor, and everyone avoids her, dreading that whatever it is that made her Orochimaru-sensei betray the village would infect them too.

Anko finds that she does not mind.

It is better this way, and she knows enough of the world--of Konoha--to count herself lucky.

* * *

Drelfina: 

It was not easy being a Clan head. There was so much to handle, the minutae of running the clan, organising the accounts, _meeting_ with the accountant, and then assigning missions. There were endless meetings. 

_Wanting_ had never featured in his ascension to Clan head, because it had been plotted out for him, just as it had been plotted out for his son Itachi. 

Of course he would attain jounin rank. But it was also difficult - how was he supposed to also try to protect the rest of the clan, so many chuunin, when he was one jounin? The other jounin of the Uchiha died three months into his tenure as new Clan Head, never coming out of his coma on the surgical table, and that meant he had to be the one trying to keep his Clan Chuunin safe at the same time as running them on missions _and_ taking his own missions - 

It hadn't been easy. 

It was a little bit easier when Shisui made jounin. He never stayed long in the village, constantly going on long-term missions - but he at least brought in the money, his presence when he _did_ come in was enough to stave off the wolves for the most part.

* * *

Lilili_cat

Hiruzen looks at Senju Tsunade, and he thinks of Shodaime-sama.

Hiruzen looks at Tsunade, and he thinks of the once great clan of the first.

Hiruzen looks at Tsunade and looks at her fine control with chakra and immediately suggests medic.

She has other skills. She is powerful. She is strong. She could be any type of shinobi no mono that she chooses.

But Hiruzen remembers that once great clan and knows...a medic will never be found on her knees. A medic will never be found on her back.

* * *

Lilili_cat

In any other place, the Inuzuka may have found themselves in trouble. They are strong, but not the strongest. They have power, but are not the most powerful.

They are not Senju Hashirama; they are not Uchiha Madara; they are not even Sarutobi Hiruzen.

But what they have, and what other clans lack...is numbers.

The Inuzuka breed and are a strong, loyal pack.

And they are just strong enough, just powerful enough, to continuously ward off any attempts to bring them down.

They are pack and whereas an Inuzuka by herself would be easy prey, they are never alone.

* * *

Lilili_cat

Shikaku is as renowned for his laziness as he is for his mind.

The Nara have always been lazy, the other clans murmur among themselves. The Nara has never cared to rise the rungs of power.

But Shikaku knows better.

To attempt that rise is to fall if you cannot make it.

And the Nara…

The Nara would much rather watch the other clans make that climb and then falter, rolling down past the bones of the fallen that they had trodden to get to their lofty position.

And so Shikaku encourages his clan to stay genin, while he remains the sole, only Jounin.

The higher you climb, the greater the fall, and Shikaku does not want to watch his clan tumble down.

* * *

Drelfina 

Hatake Sakumo was one of the greats, he knew, almost equivalent to the Sannin in terms of power, in raw strength, in the amount of chakra he could command. 

It had been… strange though, coming from such a small clan - almost a clan of _one_. They had been one of the Senju's first allies, and after the disappearance of the Senju, it seemed like the Hatake had also dwindled till it was just his family - his father, his sister. 

He'd worked his way up from chuunin, electric hot in the war, easy enough to submit when necessary and then burn his way through enemy lines to earn his promotion to jounin with blood on his tanto and ash on his hands. 

And the chuunin Minato, future Yondaime, already having a name of his own as Yellow Flash, had laughed with him when Sakumo had gotten his promotion banner, helped him tie it on his arm, and when Sakumo caught him by the jaw and kissed him, Sakumo tasted blood on his tongue, got blood on Minato's laughing teeth. 

That moment felt like it would last forever.

* * *

Lilili_cat

Konoha doesn’t really take the Akimichi seriously, and it is not encouraged to.

Oh, a Konohan shinobi no mono will reply, they are good-natured and boisterous. Deadly in a fight, but only in taijutsu. Good against enemies, but only with the Nara and Yamanaka at their backs.

The Jounin will be amused, but there are more interesting prey at hand, and why bother the Akimichi? They are just fun to have around.

They remind Konoha of Tanuki, as round as they tend to be.

What Konoha does not notice…

The Nara and Yamanaka do.

Choza holds the biggest food empire in Konoha, and who holds your food...holds your throat.

The Jounin will not mess with the Akimichi, not unless they want to be poisoned at their next meal.

* * *

Lilili_cat 

Inoichi’s father always warned him to be careful, for he is beautiful and to be beautiful and not strong enough is to invite danger.

Inoichi is not stupid. He is not his friend Shikaku, but he has studied the history books and seen what happened to drive a terrifying shinobi like Orochimaru of the Sannin out of the village.

He is not stupid, and so he binds his hair and puts on a hood and keeps away from meeting any of the Jounin’s eyes.

And he sticks to his friends Shikaku and Choza and ignores the snickers from the other shinobi.

They whisper that he serves Shikaku and Choza on his knees. They whisper that he’s the pretty face to comfort them at night.

Inoichi knows better. They protect each other, just like they protect their clans.

And when they all become Jounin...he will mete his revenge.

Those Jounin forget...a Yamanaka is the master of the mind.

And the mind can be hurt in ways the body cannot.

* * *

sweetsinnerchild

Rin had been so careful.

Minato-sensei had believed in informed choices, and telling his students about making them - he had sat her down one day and told her exactly what becoming chuunin entailed. In the back of the room, Kushina hovered - she heard people call it love, but Rin saw the way Kushina eyed Minato, and wondered, sometimes. 

Sensei had told her about how liberties could be taken against a chuunin, and the fortresses of safety that were available to her: the Academy, the Intel Department, the hospital. It is the last that Rin ultimately chooses out of practicality - she had little patience for children and analysis, and far more chakra control than other shinobis of her age.

(It’s this choice that allows her to transplant Obito’s eye into Kakashi, a choice that Rin wondered sometimes if it was for the best.)

She had asked then, where was Obito (late) and Kakashi (training) - why was she given this talk alone? The answer: Obito had protection in the form of his clan, and Kakashi didn’t need the talk. He knew.

So Rin listened to sensei and went into the hospital, and learnt that chakra control was not enough to be a good medi-nin. She took on more shifts than necessary, as favors to her peers, and ingratiated herself to her superiors - it would be for naught, if the medi-nin did not value her presence enough to protect her when the time came. Community was more than the occupation you chose.

So Rin had been so careful, even as she was taken off hospital rotation to be an active field medic, and the others had known that they would be at the mercy of her scalpel one day. _And even if you killed me,_ she said one day to a jounin who thought he was smart enough to think about killing a chuunin after raping them, _you would be at the mercy of someone else._

He didn’t listen. It didn’t matter - Rin went back to the base with a jounin banner, and the respectful nods of her fellow shinobi.

So careful, and yet there’s nothing all the preparation in the world could do when Kiri shoved the Sanbi into her body, anger and hate and a desperation for freedom clawing its way out from under her skin - and Kakashi was next to her, wiry arm supporting her body, and, and -

 _Get away from me,_ she tried to warn him, but all that came out was a scream, and the feeling of bones that were never hers piercing out of her skin.

 _They put something inside me,_ she tried to say, as chakra, blue and wet and foreign, bubbled up inside her and clogged her throat shut.

 _I’m sorry, Kakashi,_ even with Kakashi’s kunai leaving a line across her throat and in her chest, and Rin knew that with how careful she had been to stay beloved within the medical community, the hospital would no longer be safe for him.

_I’m sorry._

* * *

Lilili_cat

Shibi knows their clan fortunes has never been so good. Shibi knows that the Aburame have never been so respected, so feared.

Shibi knows that, back in the day, during the times of the Sengoku Jidai, they were only a minor clan, an inconvenience that the other clans were rather disgusted by.

For the Aburame specializes in insects, and the average shinobi would much rather not think about insects.

Now, however…

Now, they are respected. Now, they are _sought_ after.

For who wants to tangle with a man or a woman who controls insects that may burrow into your skin and eat you inside out? Who wants to offend a clan that control the very creatures that feast upon the flesh of the dead?

And who would _dare_ accost an Aburame, only to invite invisible attacks from all directions, in the safety of one’s home, outside the walls of Konoha itself? Where in the whole of Fire is free from insects? Where in the whole of the world is safe from the Aburame’s swarms?

And so the other clans seek to ally themselves with them and marry into their clan, and their numbers swell like the hive they are, have always been.

It is good to be an Aburame.

* * *

Drelfina

Theirs is the greatest love story told in Konoha, he knew. 

Fire painted her hair and her hands glowed gold with the chakra chains she whipped out and flayed the landscape and the whole of enemy platoons with. 

He moved with the flash of gold and autumn leaves, here and there the next. Where she stood, and burned, he'd destroy so no one would touch her. 

Perfectly suited to each other, his eyes glowing gold as her chakra chains on the battlefield, as the fields ran bloody and thick around them. 

Of everyone around them, there was nothing to touch them, that could hurt them. 

Between them both, they could fist the reigns of the vicious Hounds of Konoha, and turn them to anywhere they pleased. 

They were the greatest love story of Konoha, but sometimes.

Sometimes Minato missed the feel of silver hair against his chin, the bite of dog-sharp teeth against his lips, and the burn of lightning against his hands.

* * *

Drelfina 

It wasn't easy, being talented enough to be genin in a jounin-led team. Joining one of the elite, who were earmarked to becoming chuunin. 

Yamashiro Aoba wasn't the most observant - so it'd taken him by surprise when he'd been given the promotion to chuunin on the battlefield one moment and then pinned into the bloody mud the next, his team-captain taking out the battlefield lusts and bloodrage on him the way that five minutes ago he'd never known could occur. 

But he survived that, submitted and endured and - 

Three missions later, he realised that was just the way it worked, and if you were clever, you'd wait, bide your time. 

On the fourth mission, he had a senbon from the other chuunin of his team, poison as sweet as the honey-blond of Genma's hair, and their team-captain didn't notice the prick on the way back. 

Genma's gaze was dark and hooded, but said nothing when Aoba reported the death of their team-captain on the way back from the successful mission in one breath, and accepting a bloodied banner on the other. 

Pity, that Genma was already claimed, because he would have wanted to know what other sweetness the chuunin concealed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theirs was the greatest love story Konoha ever told.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The previous drabble fest was supposed to be the end of it; the universe was supposed to be CLOSED and DONE. 
> 
> Except... Except Minato caught my imagination, and I got the feels. 
> 
> Minato, the bright rising star, and his unspoken, doomed, love affair.

Kushina knew what they said about them, her and Minato. 

They saw allies and thought _love_. 

In a way, maybe that was what it was. After all, he had fought back to back with her on the bloody battle field of what would later be called the Third Great Shinobi war. Their fighting styles were remarkably well-matched, fitting together in a way that covered all their weaknesses, complemented their strengths. 

For a jounin, he was remarkably trusting, and he'd always kept his word - his _true_ word, if you knew how to read him. Watchful, always, calculating behind the bright blue eyes and easy sweet smile. 

He never liked to kill, barely wanting to blood, his fellow Konoha-nin, was far more likely to turn his chin up and bare his throat in submissiveness, when she had noticed him as a bright sunny chuunin. She had almost dismissed him then, before, but he'd made jounin so easily, and no one had _hated_ him for making it, and then she'd made jounin so _easily_... 

It was his fulfillment of his promise to her, and she watched his back, became his ally because that was her part of the bargain. It just so happened they meshed well , too. 

So few chuunin tried to kill him for his banner - and it was because he'd been one of them too, once, not the way other chuunin would claw each other to get to the top, to be safe. 

They were the great love-story, the ones that fit like jigsaw puzzles, but she also had been watching him, and for all that they meshed, he had always _matched_ someone else. 

Someone else with teeth and fangs, with the same lightning burn in the sky, the same flash and flare of speed. 

Konoha thought they were the great love-story, but Kushina knew better.

* * *

When Sakumo had gotten married, Minato had been happy for him. A field-chuunin just as deadly as Sakumo, lithe and fast. There were so many reasons why she agreed to it - Minato could read them just as easily as he could read the jutsu manuals he kept updating the library with. Clan protection, worthy ally. Marriage into a clan was one of the fastest ways out of the incentive candidate pool, particularly a clan as reasonably respected as the Hatake. And Sakumo was one of the most honourable people he'd ever met - never the kind to stab someone in the back; his own graduation to jounin had been a combination of direct challenge and battlefield adrenaline, over the other jounin's treatment of _Minato_ , of all things. 

The rules were different, on the battlefield, when the tail trailing end of skirmishes were dying off. Then, you could cut down a weaker jounin because they needed strong ones, they needed fresh jounin all the time, and a freshly blooded chuunin was always eager to prove themselves. 

When Sakumo had kissed him then, Minato had cut his lip and tongue on Sakumo's sharp canines, laughing at being marked so, claimed so, even though he knew Sakumo would never actually claim him for real and forever, not when Minato had so many more strings to gather. 

When Sakumo had his child, Minato was the first one to hold little Kakashi after Sakumo and his wife, touching the light tuft of white hair that marked him as Hatake, and it'd felt like seeing Sakumo all over again. 

And when Sakumo had come home with his teammates and the start of another war, Minato had understood. 

Sakumo had always been too honourable, too emotional. 

And it killed him.

* * *

Minato could never be anyone's, Kushina knew. 

She'd seen him bare his throat to too many jounin, submit easily and thank them for the experience later. More than one had tried to claim him permanently, but he'd glided out of their grasp as easy as water. 

She'd seen him make allies of those who would have sought to claim him - and he'd become jounin favour-free - or rather, he'd had so many strings from so many clansmen, various factions of the Village and families, that it was almost the most bloodless promotion she'd ever seen, Hatake Sakumo kissing him once before tying on a brand new banner to Minato's arm and stepping back and away.

In return, he never took in his own chuunin, dispensing that same favour and smile to others as easily as he could take a heart.

It was still the strangest thing, when Kakashi came to them, when Minato got the news that Sakumo was dead. 

Kushina had been the one to sit with the Hatake boy while Minato was gone for two nights before he returned to tell them that Kakashi was staying with him, if he wanted.

* * *

How had it come to this? 

Hands in his hair and sharp driving force into him which he had left behind in the days of his chuunin rank. 

How had it come to this? 

He had brought his teammates home knowing it was on the wind of war, that he had failed the Village and Konoha did not tolerate failure. 

How had it come to this? 

His own teammates and his own comrades, out-powering him and surrounding him, saying the _Great White Fang_ with every drop of hate and derision. Forcing him to his knees. 

He would have fought harder, he would have killed them, if he could but. 

There were so many hands and so many kunai, and one of them was held at Kakashi's neck, even if Kakashi wasn't even in the same room, the same house. 

How had it come to this? 

Him on his knees, in the same room he'd once handed his infant child to Minato's arms, watched the sunlight slant in on his golden hair and turn Kakashi's hair gilded and beautiful. 

How had it come to this? 

Kakashi's eyes, wide and horrified at him, uncomprehending and him _begging_ Kakashi run to the one comrade who was safe, who would never hurt Kakashi. 

(Or him) 

It had come to this. 

At least Minato was never anything more to Sakumo than a comrade, a fellow-nin. 

At least _he_ was safe, and could keep Kakashi safe, for Sakumo.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the KPI universe, you don't say out loud what it is, if you love. 
> 
> The greatest way to show love is to say, I want to be claimed by you. 
> 
> If Minato could have, he would have wanted to be claimed by Sakumo. 
> 
> If Sakumo could have, he would have kept him. 
> 
> But Minato had so far to go - he had more strings to gather, more favours to earn and keep, his gaze on the ever high Hokage's seat. 
> 
> So Sakumo let him go. 
> 
> And Sakumo never said anything - never named him more than a friend. 
> 
> The only time they'd probably fucked for real was when Sakumo had promoted to jounin, and Sakumo had let him go after. 
> 
> And when Minato was promoted to jounin, that might have been the last kiss they'd had. 
> 
> If only Sakumo had held out. If only Sakumo hadn't killed himself. 
> 
> The three of them could have been great.


End file.
